Jay Jones looked around Gaither Pool at Kelso High School and couldn’t help to be jealous.
“This is just one school, and they have their own facility,” said Jones, one of the coaches for the Evergreen Public Schools swim teams. “We have four schools (in our district), and we don’t have anything like this.”
This week, athletes from Clark County will head up to the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way for the high school state girls swimming meet. And they will enter the pool with a disadvantage.
There just aren’t a lot of public indoor swimming facilities in Clark County for high school teams to use for practice and competitions.
Kelso High School has its own pool, which regularly hosts the District 4 championship meets for Class 4A and 3A, like it did on Nov. 2 for girls swimming.
Mark Morris High School in Longview also has an indoor pool, which is used by Mark Morris and R.A. Long high schools.
But there are no on-campus pools at any high school in Clark County.
Vancouver Public Schools owns and operates the Propstra Aquatic Center, which was built in 1999 thanks to a donation by George and Carolyn Propstra. Swim teams at Skyview, Columbia River, Hudson’s Bay and Fort Vancouver share that facility.
But elsewhere in the county, high school swim teams have to utilize pools at privately-owned facilities like Cascade Athletic Club, Gold’s Gym in Camas or the Clark County YMCA.
While those are fine facilities, the high school teams have to fashion their practice schedules around available pool time at the clubs. And that means a lot of early morning or late night practices.
In fact, the Evergreen program — which includes swimmers from Union, Mountain View, Evergreen and Heritage high schools — have two daily practice windows to make the most of pool space and athletes’ schedules.
“In the morning practices, the kids are supposed to be at the pool at 5:30, so they can untarp the pool, turn the lights on and get everything set up,” Jones said. “They’re in the water by about 5:40, and they swim until 7.”
Having practices at 5:30 can be a big deterrent to getting more high school students to come out for swimming. Then, there is the added problem of getting to the pool at that hour.
“Getting up in the morning, some of the kids don’t drive yet,” Jones said. “So they have to have their parents do it, so they have to plan ahead for that. And that can be hard on them, and their parents.”
Camas also has morning practices from 6-7:45 a.m. Yet, the Papermakers had more than 50 swimmers in their program, often meaning six to eight swimmers per lane during practices.
It means there is a lot of preparation, on the part of both the coaches and the swimmers, Camas coach Kelly Dean said.
“They have to prepare ahead of time,” Dean said. “They have to have their breakfast planned. They have study early. They have to get to bed on time, because they have to get ready early and carpool together (to the pool).”
While the schedule is challenging, the swimmers try to make the best of it.
“One of my favorite things is that every year we have a glow-in-the-dark swim practice,” Camas senior Amy Lewis said. “We turn all the lights out and swim with glow sticks. And then we get watch the sun rise as a team.”
Before the time change earlier this month, swimmers in the Evergreen program were finishing their morning practices before sunrise.
“Yeah, it is dark,” Heritage senior Haley Gunderson said. “And it is cold.”
Gunderson said, because of her club swim practice times, she swims in the evening practices, which start at 8 p.m. That can lead to some late nights.
“Normally, I swim club in the (late) afternoon,” Gunderson said. “And then I have a couple hour break to do my homework. Then I go back and swim for high school.”
Jones said the odd practice time does help the swimmers become more disciplined about their time management and dedication to the sport. And with early and late practice times, the fact that everyone is making a sacrifice to be part of the team helps build camaraderie.
“They are really supportive of one another,” Jones said. “And it doesn’t matter if they go Union or Mountain View, they’re all part of the same team. And they cheer each other on.”
But imagine the possibilities that could open up if high school swimmers had access to on-site facilities, like they have in Kelso, Longview or other parts of the state.
As Dean pointed out, swimming doesn’t just provide lessons in high school, but it opens path to the future, particularly to those students who are introduced to swimming on the high school team.
“I really like to use swimming as way to learn that this is a lifelong sport,” Dean said. “There are very few sports that you can do for your entire life, and swimming is one of them. And I really want them to embrace a love of swimming beyond high school. … They have the ability to use it for stress relief, for fitness and just for self-care. I really feel that Camas swimming creates healthy members of our community.”
